Wrestling Being Brought to Lewis County

To this day one of the oldest recorded sports is wrestling as it origins date back 15,000 years. As in the times combat was really the only way to determine strength and leadership. Even though wrestling has been around the longest, doesn’t mean its the most popular or available to everyone.

For Coach Skyler Thompson, wrestling wasn’t an option for him until he moved to Joplin at the age of 21 and he now looks to make it an option for student athletes in not just Lewis County but the entire Northeastern area.

The Lewis County Wrestling Club was started in October of 2020. And is looking to help young Lewis County wrestlers grow and develop as the sport looks to grow in the Northeast area. As they are getting ready for the Scrap for the Strap to start the year.

Throughout the entire United states there are 115,576 schools in the country¹. In an article from We Are Teachers. Of those schools only 20,469 are high schools. Of the 20,469 high schools, 10,797 offer boys wrestling and only 4,802 offer girls wrestling.²

For Coach Thompson wrestling really helps students who don’t size up for like football, basketball and don’t get to play. He feels wrestling can open up the door for more student athletes. This sport can really help football players as well in their offseason as it helps reduce injury and in practice.

Coach Connor Steed, says wrestling is big character building, and help administer what they learn about themselves in other sports.

Not just high schools, colleges where schools like Culver-Stockton and Hannibal-LaGrange don’t offer wrestling for neither boys or girls. This can open up the door for higher retentions rates. With these schools being so close to Iowa. Which is known for being a power house in producing wrestlers.

This opens the door for recruitment and offering scholarships to people who just want to wrestle a little longer. Culver-Stockton’s conference the Heart of America has some of the best wrestling schools in the NAIA. Back in March Grand View won the National Championship in wrestling.

As Southern Oregon wins the inaugural women’s wrestling national championship as wrestling opens up new opportunities for women and more student athletes.

Both coaches look forward to their participation in the Scrap for the Strap in Hannibal Missouri on January 6th. As every year is a learning experience and makes them better. The event will begin at 9 AM CST, as we will do our best to post the results.

1. https://www.weareteachers.com/how-many-schools-are-in-the-us/ ↩︎
2. https://www.nfhs.org/media/5989280/2021-22_participation_survey.pdf ↩︎